10 CHAPTER 10: Being the Bumper Car

[Clerence Cartwright]

I was walking absentmindedly with the three idiots when Sasha's condition plagued my mind, pulling me away from their conversation.

What should I do? I thought.

"CLERENCE!!" Greg shouted with the top of his lungs until I nearly jumped. When I looked at him, I could see curious and death glares cast towards us from the crowd. However, the African American boy continued loudly with his unique accent, "DO YOU WANNA PLAY THE BUMPER CAR?!"

"S-SURE!" I answered with a similarly loud volume to communicate in the middle of the noisy crowd.

"THEN, LET'S GO!!" Surprisingly, it was Hansel, the coldest among us all, speaking with his worried look. Yet in a mere second, his expression was replaced with a neutral look. The colour of the lights outlined his face perfectly.

Soon, we queued in front of the counter to purchase the ticket. As Hans didn't want to drive, he's going to settle down in Greg's car as Doc and me preferred to drive alone. All of us were looking forward to kicking each other's asses in the limited driving zone.

As we waited for our turns, we tended to choose our favourite cars, where Hans and Greg in a blue vehicle; Doc in a red while I, myself had chosen a green one. The game started after more participants joined in. As we all waited in our respective cars, I couldn't stop shaking my right leg because of delight and excitement. I had to say right at that moment, all the thoughts that troubled my mind had gone to the back of my head.

I couldn't wait until the siren horned. I couldn't help imagining how happy I would be when my car bumped into the others'. And that was how I realised how much stress and pressure I was enduring.

***

[Sasha Shadows]

I was so happy to find an empty seat beside Clerence. He was holding onto the steering with one hand while his right leg stretched towards the go pedal. I watched when he talked to his friends with his eyes talking, cocking one of his eyebrows and also cracking into a smirk.

Based on my perspective, I couldn't deny that he looked so much like a bad boy from the famous bad boy stories or dramas. A bad and sexy boy, who's going to drive recklessly as if he'd never been involved in a car accident before.

Soon, the roaring siren broke me out of my reverie and what came next was Clerence driving the car forward and turning left sharply. His target was locked onto a blue bumper car. I nearly flew out of the vehicle as the driver knocked the targeted car. If it wasn't because of the loud music, I wouldn't know that I was screaming until my throat hurt.

Well, ironically, Clerence was laughing when I did so.

The victims he bumped into - Hans and Greg - knocked onto each other due to the sudden collision. As Greg noticed Clerence, I could see Greg raising one side of his eyebrows when maneuvering his car towards us. As for Hansel, it was rare to see him breaking into a wide smile with his eyes turning into the shape of crescent.

The way he adjusted his specs turned him into a hilarious clown because it slipped down from his nose bridge so many times. Suddenly, it was our turn to be knocked. As we turned our heads to that direction, we could see the culprit, Dominic Williams, waving at us before maneuvering his car away and getting hit by the strangers.

"Ha!" Turning the steering wheel skillfully, Clerence tried to hunt down the other hot boy but was blocked by the other drivers. "Oops, SOrry!!" He shouted an apology when our car was being hit several times. As Dominic's escaping route was blocked by the other "drivers" as well, it gave Clerence enough time to catch up.

"BAAMM!" We shouted together though the boy beside me never heard my voice.

"AWW, MMMMMANNN!!!!!" Dominic grumbled in defeat as Clerence chuckled with the taste of victory. He sent the defeated boy a salute before turning away to avoid his revengeful clash. "COME BACCKKK HERE!!!!"

Ignoring Dominic's demand, Clerence fled and managed to avoid most incoming clashes with his excellent driving skills. As both of us thought we were at the safe zone, we could hear both Greg and Hansel shouting the same word.

"CLEEEEEERRRRRREEEEENNNNNCCCCCEEEEE!!!!!" The said boy averted his gaze towards the voice source while frozen with his eyes widened. By the time he was going to react, their car had already bumped us on the right side, which was my passenger side. "WOOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!" cheered the guys seated in the blue car as Greg sent Clerence a wink.

"YOU BETTER RUN, GUYS!!" warned Clerence as he turned the steering wheel again, intended to avenge himself. Nevertheless, all vehicles had stopped in sync.

"Too late, Cartwright!" The blue car driver piped as he got down from the car with Hansel.

"NOOOO…." Dominic's frustrated exclamation drove the whole space's attention. "Why was it stopped?!" As a result, almost everyone laughed at his reaction which was similar to a five-year-old. "Another round!" He said, stomping out of the driver seat while his face shouted dissatisfaction.

With his elbow resting at the centre of the steering wheel, Clerence shook his head with a chuckle as his fingers braced his chin. "Sure, you can play with Greg and Hans 'cause I'm out." He announced while getting out of the vehicle, his hands raised with the indication of his unchanged decision.

"We're NOT ON for the second round bro, sorry," apologised Greg as he trailed behind Clerence and me. "What should we play next, babe?" he asked while leaning in towards Clerence's face to gain his attention. Apparently, the latter rolled his eyes in annoyance while inching his face away.

"Stop it, Greg," said Clerence as he frowned. His hands pushed the African American away when the other boy cackled upon his reaction. Soon, he walked away from the bumper car station without even looking back. Turning my head back worriedly, I could see none of the guys were following him.

However, I stopped when curiosity drove me towards the topic of their discussion. They were planning to extract Clerence's confessions about his weird behaviour currently. Speaking of getting to have my name spoken to these boys by chance, I was oddly excited about it.

As they all looked at Clerence's leaving figure, their wicked smiles were visible when they had the same idea in mind.

***

Back to [Clerence Cartwright]

"Hey Cartwright, wait up!" Greg demanded from behind but my legs couldn't listen. My mind didn't listen. Instead, I picked up my pace until I arrived at the roller coaster station.

I should have known better before he patted me on the shoulder. "Shit," I cursed under my breath.

"Wanna ride?" That was the most terrible question on earth.

This guy knew I couldn't stand the steepness of the roller coaster tracks as well as its speed, yet he still brought up the subject.

Hiding my nervous expression behind my fake smile, I uttered, "No."

"Why not?" asked Doc with a whine as he caught up with us. Hansel was following from behind, staying quiet while pretending he was not aware of the situation.

"BECAUSE I DON'T WANNA RIDE IT!" I ranted due to the loud music blasting from the speaker one metre away from us. Well, actually, I was kinda angry.

"Oh sure you want it," sang the quietest boy when his smugly smile told me everything.

"Oh sure I don't want it!" I protested with my arms crossed and my head shaking like an Indian. My expression turned from a "you better don't test me" look to a poker face. Without any clue, I took my heels from the roaring roller coaster and away from the three idiotic assholes.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!"

"CATCH HIMM!"

I laughed at their stupidity while running away as fast as I could. Despite the people sending me doubtful glances, I ignored them and continued my fleeing mission, my head turned from left to right and to the left while looking for the best hiding spot. It was time to burn my calories after eating a meal with so much protein and carbohydrate.

"WAIT UP, DUDE!!" I could hear Greg shouting from behind as my legs moved faster. My heart was beating so fast out of anxiety and the purpose of providing enough blood for my brain. I could hear myself panting when I made a sharp turn, which thereby scared the surrounding individuals.

As I thought I could run away from them when the bus station entered my point of view, I bumped into someone by accident. At that time, I was bumping into somebody with my broad shoulder. Both of us fell on our butts due to the impact with our lips shaping "ow". And because of this, I managed to recognise the girl in front of me.

Kayla.

Her appearance drove me towards a blank mind when I failed to process with my next move. The feeling was not because of affection but hate. "GOTCHA!!!" shouted Dominic as he pulled me on my forearm, helping me up from the ground.

"Clerence?" I turned and saw Kayla looking at me, surprised and happy.

"Kayla?" I replied as if it was a knee-jerk reaction. "What are you doing here?"

"I-I'm coming to play, obviously," Kayla answered with her eyes avoiding me. What was she afraid of anyway?

Unlike her bold and arrogant self when being a school bully, Kayla acted so much like a defeated cat when she talked to us. It wasn't cute but disgusting. "Hey Kayla, small world," greeted Dominic as he started to pull me away from her. Soon, the others caught up.

"There… you are… C-Cart-wr-right..." As all of them were here already, there was no way for me to run away again. I could see Hansel and Greg bracing their hands on their knees, panting hard. Their shirts were all stained with sweat.

Was I having better stamina than them?

"Now, roller coaster," insisted those idiots when they pulled me away from the scene as if I was a doll.

"NO!" I protested.

"YES!" They debated. "Or you're gonna tell us about it NOW."

"I said tomorrow, right?" I asked back with frustration and I forgot about the girl's existence near me. If I was aware, I wouldn't have wanted her to hear any of our discussions.

"Tell them what?" But hell yeah, Kayla was one of the obsessive busybody girls who posted updates of us in our college blog. The way she followed us and took our pictures without our consent made me uncomfortable.

But just as I was rummaging my brain to think of the best excuse, the scene in which she tripped and fell headlong to the ground was shockingly funny.